So I am not getting the new powers stuff. If a character like the new Doom has invuln and Mastermind can he use both at the same time? How about the new Iron Man and having Invuln and Super Senses...my head is spinning, adn how about a charge and Flurry? Thats what I get for my time off....

You can use them both but the order of how they are used is up to you.

With Inv/MM you determine which one he will use, You can either take the hit and use Invuln or use MM to not take the hit.

With SS/Invuln you get Supersenses first to determine if he is hit, and then Invuln to take damage if he is (SS roll failed).

Invulnerability and Mastermind cannot be used at the same time. When a character would be dealt damage, Mastermind triggers. At that point, if you choose to use it, all the damage is transferred to another character.
Invulnerability triggers when damage is dealt which reduces it by 2 and the character takes the remaining damage.

Iron Man can use Super Senses and Invulnerability on the same attack. Super Senses triggers when a successful attack roll is made against the character and Invulnerability triggers when damage is dealt. So when Iron is attacked successfully, he rolls for Super Senses. If the Super Senses roll fails then his Invulnerabilty is used to reduce the damage by 2.

Charge and Flurry can be used together. It's a matter of action compability. Charge is a power action that grants a character half-movement followed by a close combat action. Flurry is a close combat action. The close combat action you give the character during a charge can be given to use Flurry.

I know there are other threads that explain action compatibility. Running a search on "special powers" or "white powers" may pull up something fruitful.

A number of players at one of the regular venues I go to are confused by all the Special Powers. They all swear they're switching to Alpha.

Special powers are hardly confusing if you know the basic rules to begin with.

I think a lot of the "Mastermind and a reducer" special powers are to allow these pieces to qualify for feats like Contingency plan. Makes a lot of the Crisis and SI Sprcial Power choices look a little smarter when you think of it as prep for the new rules..

I also think the "Mastermind and a reducer" Special Powers are designed to better represent the character -- if Doom is caught without his Mastermind fodder, is he totally helpless? NO! He's got ARMOR. He's DOOM. So he should be able to take a hit and reduce some of it, even if he doesn't have any Mastermind fodder nearby.

Or, if the hit coming in is 3 damage, and the only Mastermind fodder Doom has available is the Doombot with Enhancement -- he might elect to take the damage himself and reduce it to 1 in order to keep his Doombot on Enhancement (since he's going to pound someone next turn...)

It gives him OPTIONS.

It's like Nightwing's defensive power -- if he's caught out in the open, without hindering terrain to hide in, he can use ES/D. If he's based and attacked close combat, he can use CR.

You said this a lot more nicely than I almost did.

OK can you explain the difference between this power and impervious???

It is actually considerably more effective than impervious. Impervious allows you a roll to reduce damage to zero when you are dealt damage. Super Senses allows you a roll to avoid successful attacks. This means that you get a SS roll against mind control and incap, but you would not get such a roll with impervious. I know you used to be able to super sense against forceblast, but I dunno if that is the case anymore. However, impervious obviously does not protect against forceblast.

Force Blast doesn't require an attack roll nor does it deal damage so Super Senses and damage reducers don't work against it.

I'm not sure if anyone has said it yet, but the rule of thumb when wondering "does this power work with this power." is the way it's written in the PAC.

If both powers say "Give this character a [blank] action..." then no, obviously both powers can't be used together because you can't give a character two actions in one turn.

If one power says "When this character is given a [blank] action..." and one power says "Give this character a [blank] action..." then yes, they work together, because when you give your character an action, the other power is activated.

At least, this is my understanding, in my experience.

It can be confusing, but if you have a PAC on hand you'll eventually be able to memorize most of the wordings.

Good luck!

Whoever said you can't use them both makes no sense. If someone attacks you for 2 damage, you can elect to use Invuln. and just absorb the 2 damage. If someone attacks you for 5 you can elect to mastermind it off to someone adjacent to you. Mastermind is OPTIONAL. The power even says "when the character is dealt damage you can choose to deal it to an ajacent friendly character that is less points" so you can choose to deal it to a character next to you or you can choose to take the damage, then Invulnerability comes in "Damage dealt to this character is reduced by 2" so if you didn't choose to mastermind the damage, you are dealt the damage, which is reduced by two.

Similar with Super Senses and Invuln. Supersenses - when you are the target of a successful attack roll a die, if you roll a 5 or 6 you evade the attack, if not you take the damage - thereby kicking in Invuln and reducing it by two.

You are correct. I think when people say you can't "use them together", they mean that if you hit doom for 3, he can't use invuln first to reduce it to 1, and then MM just 1 click to fodder.

The only confusion comes from the fact that powers that weren't physically able to overlap before now can. It's still a simple matter of figuring out if there's a reason they're NOT compatible. If you can't find one, assume they are. Charge/Flurry is one such instance. It seems so foreign, but there's nothing to say you COULDN'T, so therefore you can.

It's not even if you can figure out if you can use them together. You don't use Mastermind and Invuln together. Someone successfully attacks Doom, Doom's controller has the option of using Mastermind (it is an optional power while Invulnerability is not), if Doom's controller chooses to use mastermind the damage is dealt to an adjacent friendly character, no damage is dealt to Doom therefore Invulnerability has no damage to reduce, if he chooses to not use Mastermind the damage is then dealt to Doom, which triggers invulnerability to reduce it by 2. It's not rocket science at all. Same thing with Super Senses - super senses is rolled BEFORE damage is dealt - it's a step before Invulnerability is even considered.